abstract: Anthropological attention to landscapes has revealed them to be more than where people subsist: landscapes are inherently social entities. People create landscapes in their interactions with the environment and each other. People conceptualize, or imbue the landscape with meaning such that given places serve to impart cultural knowledge, identity, and social order. The link between people and their landscape thus underscores the importance of a landscape focus in the attempt to understand people. Furthermore, as a product of cultural behavior, the landscape constitutes a form of material culture that may be marked in ways that are consistent with how it is conceptualized. The material dimension of people's relationship with their landscape renders it a fruitful focus of archaeological inquiry. The main goal of this study is to identify how the Wixárika of Jalisco, Mexico, conceptualize the landscape, and to assess its relevance to understanding the ancient past. As adherents of a Mesoamerican tradition, the Wixárika offer a distinctive perspective on the landscape, and one with potential to elucidate the ancient past. Given that a major share of a society's culturally significant cognitive features is expressed most productively by means of language, in this study I rely on aspects of language to ascertain Wixárika landscape conceptualization and materialization. Through the linguistic analysis of placenames and place-talk, I determine the meanings with which the Wixárika landscape is imbued. Through the analysis of the utterance of placenames, I provide examples of how the landscape is instilled with meaning. Utilizing native terminology, I characterize the content of the Wixárika landscape, and describe the process, in terms of movements, whereby the landscape is actualized. Results indicate that the Wixárika conceptualize their landscape in diverse ways, including as a dwelling, a repository of memories, and a source of identity. The process and manifestation of Wixárika landscape conceptualization yield insights pertinent to understanding ancient landscapes, especially with regard to content and scope. This study is significant in that it represents the landscape from an indigenous perspective. It also sheds light on the construction of a living landscape, and thus is a useful framework for contemplating the past. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Anthropology 2015

The manner in which human settlements are arranged across the landscape holds clues to a society's internal social relationships and may indicate how a society fits into its environment. This research investigates settlement patterns during the formative pre-historic periods in Southeast Florida, the three Glades Periods (BC 500- AD 1750). During this time span, the inhabitants of the region adapted to a changing climate and environment by occupying places that were conducive to their particular hunter-gatherer way of life. However, while the Glades people moved from one locale to another, they never altered the manner in which they primarily sought sustenance; fishing and hunting. Evidence suggests substantial population increases beginning in the Glades II Period and shift of habitations due to flooding of earlier and lower sites. / by Paul Callsen. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The objective of this thesis is to enhance the archaeological visibility of mobile pastoralists in the southern Levant, accomplished through an ethnoarchaeological study of Bedouin mortuary practices in Jordan. Qualitative data, collected via 136 ethnographic interviews, and quantitative data, collected from 20 Bedouin cemeteries, are analyzed to distinguish the material residues of Bedouin funerary practices. Patterns in these data are investigated using a multi-scalar spatial model, to improve archaeological interpretations and produce a predictive model for locating the material signatures of mobile pastoralist mortuary practices in the southern Levant. This research yields results of high archaeological visibility, demonstrating that Bedouin mortuary practices leave behind a detectable material signature on the landscape. / February 2017

O presente trabalho constitui um esforço em entender de que formas as plantas cultivadas e perdidas dos Asurini do Rio Xingu (Amazônia) exercem papéis sociais, simbólicos e identitários para este povo, e como estas plantas são incorporadas pelos Asurini em narrativas sobre o seu passado recente. Através de trabalho de campo nas aldeias Itaaka e Kwatinemu Novo, a pesquisa se utilizou das seguintes abordagens: o levantamento bibliográfico sobre a agricultura Asurini; a observação de práticas agrícolas em roças atuais e a visita a roças antigas; a realização de entrevistas semi-estruturadas com mulheres e homens Asurini; a análise de microvestígios botânicos (grãos de amido e fitólitos) de etapas do processamento de mandioca (Manihot esculenta Crantz) observadas em campo, especialmente da produção de farinha. Os dados obtidos por estes diferentes métodos são discutidos tendo em vista o papel social que as plantas atualmente cultivadas e as plantas perdidas na história recente exercem entre os Asurini na atualidade. É também discutido de que forma o estudo da agricultura e o consumo de plantas cultivadas entre os Asurini no passado possa ser uma abordagem frutífera para se pensar o presente e o futuro deste povo. / The present work constitutes an effort in understanding in what ways do the cultivated and lost plants of the Asurini of the Xingu River (Amazon) play important social, symbolic and identitary roles for this people, and how these plants are incorporated by the Asurini in narratives regarding their recent past. Through fieldwork in the villages of Itaaka and Kwatinemu Novo, the research utilized the following approaches: a bibliographical survey regarding Asurini agriculture; the observation of agricultural practices in current cultivating fields and the visiting of old fields; the conducting of semi-structured interviews with Asurini women and men; the analysis of botanical microvestiges (starch grains and phyoliths) from manihot (Manihot esculenta Crantz) processing stages observed in the field, especially of flour production. The data obtained by these different methods are discussed regarding the social role that currently cultivated plants and plants lost in recent history exert on the Asurini in modern days. It is also discussed in what way can the study of agriculture and cultivated plant use amongst the Asurini in the past be a fructiferous approach for reflecting on the present and future of this people.

A presente tese se centra na compreensão do sistema pastoril em Santa María, Província de Catamarca, Argentina. Os grupos pastoris desta região apresentam mobilidade sazonal em busca de fontes hídricas e pastagens, indicando movimentos que tradicionalmente se distinguem entre os vales e o interior das serras. Especificamente, esta mobilidade que lhes é característica também atua na percepção e apreensão da paisagem. Neste contexto, a paisagem tem um valor ativo nestas práticas e no imaginário das pessoas do lugar. A partir de uma abordagem etnoarqueológica se buscará compreender a maneira como as características específicas do sistema pastoril atuam na relação entre humanos e o meio e na internalização da paisagem, considerando as implicações materiais dessas escolhas e comportamentos. / This dissertation focuses on understanding the pastoral system in Santa María, Catamarca province, Argentina. Pastoralists movements are based on a seasonal mobility to search water sources and pastures, indicating movements that are traditionally distinguished between the valleys and the mountains. Specifically, the mobility pattern also acts on perception and apprehension of the landscape. In this context, the landscape has an active value in practices and imagination of the pastoral people. The study uses an ethnoarchaeological approach, to investigate the pastoralist system, and the implications of the relationship between humans and the environment and the internalization of landscape, considering the material implications of choices and behaviors.

This project investigates Saharan pastoralist rock-art (7500-3000BP), with a particular focus on the engravings of the Messak Plateau in southwest Libya. Taking an anthropological approach, the art is examined within the context of the lives of its creators - transhumant cattle-herders who occupied the plateau seasonally. Drawing from fieldwork in Libya together with data from multiple expeditions in the Sahara, the study addresses a major lacuna in Saharan research by focusing on materially constituted, as-lived dimensions at the micro scale. A fundamental but archaeologically elusive aspect of lived experience is a consideration of 'movement', both physical and esoteric. Its incorporation is central to this project, forming a multi-aspected theoretical framework and a methodological tool. Augmented by input from specialists in geomorphology, pastoralism, stone sculpting and animal behaviour, this movement-driven focus has produced a more developed picture of the Messak herder lives, advancing our understanding of these particular non-text, somatic societies. A singular contribution is the creation of a hypothetical model for small-scale, quotidian pastoralist practices, which expands upon the archaeological evidence, fleshing out details of a well-systematised form of dairy pastoralism involving controlled breeding and the processing of milk products. At the same time it is proposed that the herders' relationship with their cattle was one of partnership rather than ownership, involving trans-species empathy and a valuation of animal personhood. This viewpoint is part of a broader set of animal-human relations reflecting a cosmological order that diverges from modern, Western ontological constructs. Other significant findings include detailed information on the role and identity of the image-maker, revisionist data on the amount of effort and skill expended in carving processes, and an examination of the ways in which rock-art was used to manifest social emotional concerns. These were expressed via animal emotions portrayed in the rock-art, and also through performative, gestural markings associated with the imagery. Such expressions include apotropaic, supplicatory or other interactions involving communication with unseen powers.

A presente tese se centra na compreensão do sistema pastoril em Santa María, Província de Catamarca, Argentina. Os grupos pastoris desta região apresentam mobilidade sazonal em busca de fontes hídricas e pastagens, indicando movimentos que tradicionalmente se distinguem entre os vales e o interior das serras. Especificamente, esta mobilidade que lhes é característica também atua na percepção e apreensão da paisagem. Neste contexto, a paisagem tem um valor ativo nestas práticas e no imaginário das pessoas do lugar. A partir de uma abordagem etnoarqueológica se buscará compreender a maneira como as características específicas do sistema pastoril atuam na relação entre humanos e o meio e na internalização da paisagem, considerando as implicações materiais dessas escolhas e comportamentos. / This dissertation focuses on understanding the pastoral system in Santa María, Catamarca province, Argentina. Pastoralists movements are based on a seasonal mobility to search water sources and pastures, indicating movements that are traditionally distinguished between the valleys and the mountains. Specifically, the mobility pattern also acts on perception and apprehension of the landscape. In this context, the landscape has an active value in practices and imagination of the pastoral people. The study uses an ethnoarchaeological approach, to investigate the pastoralist system, and the implications of the relationship between humans and the environment and the internalization of landscape, considering the material implications of choices and behaviors.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the scale of human migration in three prehistoric settlements in the Upper Mun River Valley (UMRV) Northeast Thailand, from c. 1700BC - AD500. Archaeological data implies migration may have had a central role in the development of agriculture and later metal technology in the region, which is suggested to show increased social complexity over this important stage in the development of states in mainland Southeast Asia. The scale of these migrations, however, are not known and based on archaeological evidence it is unclear whether there were large numbers of individuals migrating into the region in order to bring about the changes seen in the archaeological record. Two potentially complementary-methods are used to identify the extent of migration in the UMRV in this thesis. The first method, the study of dental morphological traits, is used as an indication of genotype of 78 prehistoric individuals. The second method is isotope analysis of the dental enamel of 74 individuals, used as indicators of childhood residence and diet. Strontium (Sr), Carbon (C) and Oxygen (O) isotopes are analysed. The first method reflects an individual�s genetic heritage through inherited traits, while the second method is an indication of an individual�s migration during their lifetime. Together, these methods may provide a powerful means to assess the scale of migration over an extended period of time in this region. As it has been posited that the introduction of agriculture is related to migration of people into the region, the current study hypothesises that while immigrants would be identified from outside the UMRV during all phases of occupation at the sites, this would be particularly so during the earlier phases. It is also hypothesised through analysis of the morphological traits that genetic relationships at each site could be suggested. Finally, it is also hypothesised that individuals with evidence for infectious diseases, which are otherwise rare in the region, would be immigrants. The frequencies of the dental morphological traits at each site are calculated, and a local pattern for each site developed. The results from the morphological traits suggest low levels of migration into the UMRV, and overall group homogeneity. Despite this homogeneity, it is suggested that several individuals may have been from a different genetic pool to others at the sites, reflected in a different combination of dental traits. There is also some evidence for genetic relationships between individuals, and over time, possibly indicating familial relationships at the sites. Stability in the Sr isotopes over time suggest a local signature for the UMRV. Sr isotopes did not support a hypothesis of large-scale immigration into the UMRV, as there were few isotopic outliers identified. Those individuals with clear outlier Sr results, and therefore probable immigrants, were predominately female. All phases of occupation of the UMRV attracted some long-range inward movement of people, although the data suggests long-range migration diminished over time. [delta]��C values show no significant change over time, possibly supporting the Sr data of limited migration into the region. While the interpretation of this isotope is primarily from a perspective of migration it is recognised that this may be limited to understanding variation in diet in the individuals. [delta]�⁸O values show significant change over time (p = 0.00, ANOVA), perhaps consistent with previous research which suggested increased aridity in the UMRV. An alternative explanation of the [delta]�⁸O data is that migration increased with time, with people who were differentiated by their O isotopes but not their Sr, however the increased aridity hypothesis is favoured here. The hypothesis that individuals with evidence for infectious disease would be long-range immigrants into the region is rejected. None of the individuals who had physical evidence for infectious disease had chemical data to support their being immigrants. The putative migrants to the UMRV are presented as case studies, assessing the complementarity of the methods used. It is argued that given the changes in the environment over time in the UMRV the area may have become less attractive to immigrants and as a result the communities may have become more insular. The data yielded from the two methods have demonstrated the value of using inherited dental traits together with isotopic data of individual migration for investigating human mobility in the past. Using these methods, this study shows that there were low levels of migration into the UMRV and that long-range migration was more frequent in the earliest phases of occupation in the region.

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Anthropology, 2006. / "This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Adobe Acrobat"--ProQuest document view. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Harvard University, 2001. / Advisers: Ofer Bar-Yosef, K.C. Chang, Yun Kuen Lee, Richard H. Meadow. Includes bibliographical references.